Artober Fest 2006

I promise to have a pictorial of what I've been doing up very soon -- here's today:

Because a lot of people have been asking, here's a shot of my workspace:

There's nothing on the walls because it's already been packed up for the move. This picture might have to count as today's mofo-artoberfest art. ::smiles:: We'll see.

My to do list is going to kill me one of these days, this I'm sure of.

I'm usually more rambly, but I've been working through lists like this during my more quiet times . . . while in the midst of a full-on panic attack over not finishing everything before deadline.

Yesterday I made 12 cards. Each one 4.5 x 5.5. THey are all different. I get a kit from Self Addressed and so I force myself to make something with all the papers each time I get the kit.

Simple pen drawing, very rough.
Will hopefully lead to something more complex.

Day Four: (continued)

I worked on this page spread yesterday before soccer (Both B&L have a game every Wednesday night - it's SO much fun!), but I didn't have a chance to post up the image.  I'll have day five up here sometime today . . . have LOTS to do, but this will be part of my to do list!

critter study 11in by 14in pencil, watercolor pencils, extra fine sharpie marker

I just wanted to do a quick check in. I've been puttering around with paint the past few days and then just decided to pick up the sketchbook while watching tv tonight. I guess I'm just in an odd quirky mood because this is what came of it. (Larger pic here.) Yep... this is what happens when the internal censors disappear for a few hours.

Ummm... alrighty then. Hope you all are OK out there!

The left page is sketches with notes about why I decided to draw each of these random images.  This entire page was done using red and blue papermate pens.  The right side is a collage using old book pages, bits of maps, chai wrappers, Asian images, scrapbook paper, blue papermate pen, pink gel pen, green gel pen.  The phrases say:

Take pride in how far you've come.
Have faith in how far you can go.

There will be more later, I'm sure.  I wanted to turn the page and keep going, but I can't neglect work.  I'm sure I'll be back on here later on with more.

I'll post a picture of the cover once it's complete.  I'm going to add elements to it every so often throughout the month.

Day one: The inside cover is a print-out about how October is a month of art and why.  Then, the first page is a random collage with some links to sites of inspiration printed out in the middle.

Day two: I printed out a livejournal entry and deckled the edges before attaching it to a random paper arrangement.

Day three: This is an experiemental series -- similar to some work I've done before, I'm taking it a bit further tomorrow.  I'm going to work using different mediums and incorporate other assemblage visuals.

Hope you enjoyed!  I made sure to cut the mess of my desk out of each image -- it looks like a small tornado has blown through here.  I can't believe I can find anything.

Well, I decided that doing art everyday is a great thing.I did the first two layers of five collage pieces I'm working on for my husband's office. Each of the canvasses is 16 x 20, so it's taking a while, but it's working. I'd promised my husband last year that I'd work on these for his office, but I just didn't get around to it until the past two weeks. I'm hoping to complete a third layer of each of them today - adding the focus images. Before I do that, though, I'm going to scan and photograph the backgrounds for my digital archives.

I can't wait to hear more about what everyone is doing in this group!

ARTSOMOFO Day two and three:

I'm trying to stay away from random collages, but it seems to be what I always gravitate toward. I'd like to break out of my comfort zones this month and try some new methods. My confort zones are:

PAINTINGS: I always seem to do something with nature. It's always involving a tree and flowing grass. I don't know why, but this is the first thing my mind wanders off to whenever I work with paint.

DRAWING & SKETCHING: Same thing . . . I'm always drawn to things from nature. With drawings, though, it's flowers, trees and "country" elements (like an old bucket or something). Again, I'm not really sure why . . . it really quiets my mind when I work on these things, though.

COLLAGE: Even though I use random images and colored paper, my collages are still set up in a scrapbook orgnanizational manner. When I collaborated frequently on nervousness.org, I was able to manipulate different methods and styles successfully . . . but that may have been because I was working on so many projects at the same time. Perhaps I should try this multi-tasking this month to help break out of my collage comfort zone.

Beginning to break free a bit:

My altered books have been morphing into something new and different to me -- I've been using a lot of stencils (particularly on the borders) and, rather than a bulky "collaged/assemblage," they've been coming out more like that scrapbook organizational manner I described above. I've also been adding a lot of pockets, tags, cut-out's and envelopes. I like this twist, though, because I felt like my other altered book work didn't really tell the story I intended at the start of the work.

My ACEO (a.k.a. ATC) work has been changing, too. Before, I worked from card to card without really tying any of them together with a theme. Lately, I've been creating small series and exploring different themes and different materials.

I've accomplished this "break free from my comfort zone" when I was cutting watercolor paper and saved the scraps. They were perfect for either an ACEO base or the interior mat. I used walnut ink, watercolor pencils, gel ink and other various materials layered one on top of each other. This was hard for me because anyone who knows me well knows I'm an obsessive compulsive freak when it comes to keeping things neat.

I decided to do things different this year. I altered a spiral bound notebook and I'm going to see how much of it I can fill during this month of artyness. I'm going to work on other projects in conjunction with the "art journal" creations. ::smiles:: I'll post a picture of the cover and the first pages tomorrow.

[x-posted for your reading pleasure]

It's the first day of Artober Fest 2006! Are you all ready to begin a month full of arting up a storm? I'm so excited to get started!

I'd love to hear if you have a plan of attack. I do. I recently started reading Watercolor, A New Beginning: An Holistic Approach to Painting by Ann K. Lindsay It's got lots of exercises in it, so I'm planning on using the art I create with that book toward my inches. I also have a couple more art instruction type books that I'm going to follow along with this month. One is Paint Happy by Christina Acosta and the other is Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton.  I'll have to find a large book for that so I can get my inch count in easier. ;-) This will take any of the frustrating "guesswork" out of what to draw, paint, create, etc. My skills aren't quite up there yet to be able to do many things on my own yet. I'm looking at this challenge as a way to immerse myself into an intense artistic learning experience.

The sketchbook I'm using to create in is 11 x 8.5. That's 93.5 square inches per page. In order to make the 5,000 inches I'll have to do 54 of these pages. I'll be using larger paper for my acrylic painting when I start the Paint Happy book. I like to use acrylics on smooth Bristol paper and it's 11 x 14, so that is 154 square inches. Once I start my Paint Happy book, my inch count will start to add up faster.

Well, I'm off to get showered and dressed and then sit down with my watercolors!

Artsy hugs,

Kim

Welcome to the first official Artober Fest!

Please join the community by clicking on "Join this community" at the very top of this journal.  Post as many comments and pictures of whatever you are working on. It's completely okay though if you don't want to post pics of your artwork, but please do post comments to let us know what you are up to.

This challenge is to encourage us to get creating. Because we are attempting to create lots of art (5,000 square inches in one month!), we'll hopefully learn to get out of our own way and stop censoring ourselves. Without the censor or critic hanging over our shoulders we can bring forth our creative expression in our own special way. Focusing on the quantity of art rather than the quality of art will help you to ignore your internal critic. There is a time for asking your critic to join you in the art process, but the beginning stages of creation is not the time and neither is it welcome during this challenge! So, pack your critic up and send it on an extended vacation because you are about to create lots of art and lots of it will likely be crap!

For those writers out there, the phrase "shitty first draft" will likely be familiar. Anne Lamott, in her book on writing, Bird by Bird, spoke about allowing herself to write shitty first drafts. By allowing yourself to write total crap you take pressure off yourself, relieve your critic of its duty.

Just like writers who allow themselves to write "shitty first drafts" to get at the nuggets of gold, I'm asking you to allow yourself to make "shitty" art. It really is okay if it looks horrible, if the proportions are completely off, if the color is totally wrong. Create as much as possible this month and don't worry about how good or how bad it is. During November we'll have some smaller weekly challenges where we will invite the critic back in and sort through what we've created during October.

With that said, I want to ask that we encourage one another during this challenge. There will be no criticism. If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

One more thing, this challenge is for all visual art forms. Drawing, painting, collage, altered art, ATCs, art squares, quilting, knitting, crocheting, beading, clay, rubber stamping, scrapbooking. This is a challenge for all creative visual expressions. However, let's keep it clean. There will be no porno-graphic content allowed in this challenge. Tasteful nudity is okay, but please put a warning on your post and put any of those types of pics behind a livejournal cut. If you wouldn't want your child or neice or nephew to see it, then maybe you should think twice about posting it.

Now, go have fun! Create, create, and create some more!

Artsy hugs,

Kim

Artober Fest is a creative challenge during October to make 5,000 square inches of art in one month in whichever media you desire! This is a challenge of quantity not quality. It's okay if your art isn't "gallery worthy" and it's even okay if you're too embarassed to show it to your own grandmother! The point of the challenge is to get into the habit of doing art often and to break through any barriers or blocks you may have when it comes to creating art.

Yes, this is similar to the Art By the Inch challenge. However, the highest goal in Artober Fest is only half of what ABTI was. I noticed that very few people were able to accomplish 10,000 square inches in the 2004 round of ABTI. I'd like to set this challenge high enough to stretch and . . . well, challenge people, but not so high that hardly anyone can accomplish it. Of course, you are welcome to set a personal goal that is either higher or lower than 5,000 inches, but just be sure that it's at least a little bit above your normal output.

Art By the Inch was a total blast!!! Unfortunately, the girl who was running it hasn't posted to the ABTI community in over a year-and-a-half. I tried to contact her several times last year but never heard back from her. I know that other people have tried contacting her as well, but haven't been able to reach her either. That does make me worry a bit about her. I hope she's okay. How about we all send good thoughts her way and pray (or whatever you might do) that she is happy, healthy, and creating to her heart's content!

Artober Fest will run from October 1 through October 31. Please feel free to post pictures and comment as much as you'd like. I chose the month of October so that those of us who also love to write will be free to participate in NaNoWriMo in November!

I'm in the process of setting up a website for this challenge as well as other monthly and weekly challenges, contests, swaps, and other fun things. I'll post an entry here when the website is up and running. I'm just waiting for my domain name to transfer to my new server.

I hope lots of you will join in the fun!

Artsy hugs,

Kim